Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Major J. B. Foster, Lincolnshire Yeomanry

1914-15 Star (Major. J. B. Foster. Linc. Yeo.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Major. J. B. Foster.) very fine (3) £300-£400

M.I.D. London Gazette 25 September 1916:
‘For services with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force.’

Gordon Bentley Foster was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Lincolnshire Yeomanry on 26 November 1907, and was promoted Lieutenant in 1908, Captain in 1913 and Temporary Major on 2 November 1914. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 13 November 1915, states that Major Gordon Foster, who was Master of the Badsworth Hunt, had been wounded in the foot just days after leaving England. It was assumed at the time this was when the Transport he was sailing with was attacked by an enemy submarine. An article in the Yorkshire Evening Post, 18 December 1919 announced the marriage of Major Foster and Miss Phyllis Pilkington, who had served as a V.A.D. Staff nurse during the Great War. It states that Major Foster had served with the Lincolnshire Yeomanry in Egypt from 1915, then Palestine and finally France. This confirms he served with 1/1st Lincolnshire Yeomanry during the Great War.

1/1st Lincolnshire Yeomanry embarked for Salonika at the end of October 1915, however it was rerouted to Egypt, arriving in Cairo at the end of November. The Regiment remained in Egypt and then Palestine until May 1918. It served as part of the 22nd Mounted Brigade from April 1916 and then from February 1917 served with the Anzac Mounted Division. In July 1917, it formed part of the Yeomanry Mounted Division and remained with this Division until leaving for France in May 1918. Reformed as ‘D’ Battalion Machine Gun Corps with 1/1st East Riding Yeomanry, in August 1918, it was renamed 102 Battalion M.G.C.